Prince Charles is 'fed up' with politicians

The Prince of Wales holds meeting with constitutional expert as one of his
relations says politicians have left him in a 'foul mood'.

Photo: GEOFF PUGH FOR THE TELEGRAPH

By Richard Eden

7:26AM BST 09 Jun 2013

Said to be concerned about the implications of the “rushed” changes to the laws of succession that were approved by Parliament earlier this year, the Prince of Wales has summoned one of the country’s most knowledgeable constitutional experts.

Mandrake can disclose that Prince Charles held a private meeting with Lord Hennessy, the historian, at Clarence House last week. They are thought to have discussed the Succession to the Crown Act, which was passed by MPs in April but will not come into force until it has been approved by the Queen’s 15 foreign realms.

Last week, a relation of the Prince told friends that Charles was “fed up” of the “politicians”. The relation said: “He is in a foul mood at the moment and he blames the politicians.”

Prince Charles’s friend Nicholas Soames warned in the House of Commons of the “unwanted, unintended consequences that often flow from tinkering with legislation of this type and could damage the crucial relationship between Church and state”.

The changes mean that if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first child, due in July, is a girl, she would ascend the throne even if she had brothers. Marrying a Roman Catholic will no longer disqualify a person from succeeding to the Crown. However, the provision of the Act of Settlement requiring the monarch to be a Protestant continues unrepealed.